Back to school happenings...

[WhiteDaisy128]

Hey ladies! I feel like I've been a stranger lately so I figured I'd drop a note to let everyone know what was going on in my busy life!

School started back on Monday and I've been adjusting to my schedule...sort of. I only have Tuesday/Thursday classes this semester - so those days are soooo long! Yesterday was my first day of the long class and it wasn't too bad, but I was tired at the end of it all. The good thing is that I **LOVE** all of the classes I'm taking. It's my last semester and I think it'll be the only semester where I really LOVE everything that I do, which is kinda nice! Here is a run-down of my class and my schedule for T/TH's...

The morning starts early at 6:45 AM when my alarm clock goes off. I do a quick turn around and am out of the house at 7:00 AM. Class begins at 7:30 AM at Meredith College (which is a small girls school down the road from NCSU - I do all of my elementary education work through a program at Meredith as NCSU is mostly an engineering and agriculture school there is no el. ed. here). So I go through a block of classes at Meredith from 7:30-11:30. These classes include Math in the Elem. School and Communication Skills in the Elm. School (teaching reading, literacy, and oral language). In that block I also have a practicum, which is a short period where all students who will be student teaching next semester meet and go over various things. Starting this Thursday, instead of going to class at Meredith, we'll all be going to a local elementary school to observe a reading or math lesson. We will do this next Thursday as well. After that we will be assigned to our cooperating teacher that we will student teach under next semester and we will visit them once a week for the remainder of the semester. In our visits we will be teaching math and reading lessons. I'm SOOOO excited to find out what grade I'll be getting. I really want 3-5th grade...really really really 4th or 5th grade, but I'll be happy with anything. I can't wait to find out.

Then I have a quick turn over time where I drive from Meredith College, or where ever my assigned school is, to NCSU and park. Then I have to walk ALL THE WAY ACROSS campus (mind you we have the largest campus in NC) to the gym for my SCUBA Diving Class that starts at 12:25 PM. That looks like it's going to be a ton of fun too!! The instructor is real laid back, but VERY serious about safety (as he should be!). We took a swim test yesterday and I was the strongest swimmer!! Yay! It made me feel real good. I have been SCUBA diving once, but it was just a little resort dive...where you take a two hour class and they let you go down under heavy supervision...but in this class we will end up with SCUBA Diving Certification so we can go where ever and when ever we like. The Certification test will take place in May and will be done in two parts - one in a quarry here in NC and one in the FLORIDA KEYS (Key Largo to be specific!). So I'm excited about that trip! At the quarry, we'll make a total of two dives and at Key Largo we will make 5 dives (two shallow water, one wreck dive, one night dive, and one deep water dive). I'm SOOOO excited about that too!

Well SCUBA ends at 2:15 and I have a quick turn around to get dressed and head back across campus for my 2:35 Sociology of Mental Health class. It looks to be a pretty standard Soc. class, but it'll be real interesting. The people in my class seem to be very involved and not shy to talk in class (like me) so we'll have some good discussions. This class ends at 3:50 PM.

FINALLY, I have Sociology of Sexualities at 4:05 PM. Although the professor is kinda a work of art, this class should be interesting. We all introduced ourselves yesterday and the #1 reason people took the class is that it had sex in the title. I thought that was funny.

Anyway, the class ends at 5:20 and I FINALLY get to head home...for a short time! In the evenings I have gymnastics practice and by the time that is over I'm dead and ready to go to bed!! haha.

So that's my busy schedule. Oh, and on MWF's I'm substitute teaching in the public schools...which will be a neat experience - it's good though because I can always say I can't work...so I don't have to work every MWF...

Okay this is a HUGE LONG message! Anyway, have a great day!

[hannahgirl]

Glad to hear that your semester is going to be a great one!

I started student teaching Kindergarten on Monday and I am loving every minute of it. I've already started doing assessments of the students (report cards are due next week) and teaching lessons and doing the intro in class......and i've only been in the room for 3 days. I feel like I'm getting the opportunity to get started early and fix everything that I need to fix as soon as possible. Its also nice cause I have an AM and PM class so anything that I know I messed up on in the AM class, I can fix and make better in the PM class.

I get to go to a multi-age 1st and 2nd grade classroom in March for my second experience....I'm sure that it'll be interesting. I am just really ready to GRADUATE!!!! I'm sure that you are too!